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It is possible to
waste time on cold calls and other marketing activities that turn up little
in the way of sales. Wouldn't you rather have a steady stream of hot leads,
leads that not only include
contact information but give you an idea of what the prospect needs, the
problem they want solved?
You have a web site, and hundreds if not thousands of people visit your site
each week. If your site is working well it should be providing you with a
list of hundreds of people who want to be on your marketing list each week
and dozens of qualified leads, people who want you to call them right away
about your services.
Use the following five tactics to generate a list of qualified prospects.
1. Collect Contact Information
Strive to collect the
email address of every person who visits your web site and is interested in
the problems you solve. Offer a free article, tutorial or guide as bait to
motivate people to give you their email address so you can market to them
again and again.
Offer prospects something they want, and place your sign-up form prominently
at the top of your home page and in a side navigation bar on the other pages
of your site. This should help you capture the email addresses of 10-20% of
the people who visit your site each week.
2. Use Auto Responders to Collect Detailed Information
If you use a free
giveaway and the briefest of sign up forms to get people to give you their
email information you can market to prospects but wouldn't it be helpful to
have more information?
Use an autoresponder to send people a confirmation when they request your
free article or sign up for your newsletter. In the email ask them for
detailed contact information and ask them a couple of questions about what
they're interested in.
3. Get People to Tell You How You Can Help Them
Many people use the web
as tool to find solutions and to hire people who can help them solve their
problems. If you are a financial advisor, giving away an article on
financial tips is a great way to get contact information but what you really
want to do is to identify those people who have an immediate interest in
your services.
Prompt people to contact you by including an inquiry form on your web site,
but don't make the mistakes made on most web sites. Too often inquiry forms
are buried on the site, multiple clicks away from the pages most frequently
viewed by your visitors. Include your form on high visibility pages, at the
bottom of your homepage and other key pages about your services and
products.
Use your inquiry form to both collect contact information and to identify
the services your prospects are interested in and how you can help them.
When you make your follow up calls you'll know where to start the
conversation.
When you receive completed inquiry forms you can sort through them to
identify which ones are worth following up on based on the answers provided.
Then pick up the phone and use these qualified leads to find new clients and
grow your business.
4. Collect Feedback and Learn More About Your Prospect's
Needs
When people visit your
sell pages, the web pages that describe your products and services, they've
expressed an interest. Some will move directly to purchase, others will
discover they don't have any further interest and a large number will fall
into the middle. These are people who are
interested but not ready to commit.
Before visitors leave your web site sell pages, you can use exit pop up
windows to collect feedback and to find out what they are looking for.
Offer a free article to motivate visitors to fill in the form. When you get
these feedback forms, follow up with a call. Use this conversation to find
out why they didn't buy the service or product or to get further information
about the problems they want solved. Once you have these
prospects on the phone you'll be surprised how many you can turn into
clients.
5. Send out Surveys to Identify What Sells
If you have a
newsletter you can leverage the trust of your readers to collect ideas of
what they want to buy. If you've been sending out ideas and information to
your target market periodically they will be more than likely to respond
when you ask for their input.
Two to four times per year, send an informal survey to your subscriber base,
asking for their ideas. Ask them which of your product or service ideas they
like best and what they need and want. Tabulate their responses and develop
the products and services they asked for.
Use these five lead collection strategies to identify prospects with a
problem, one you can solve. Once you know who needs your help, its easy to
follow up, close the sale and grow your business.
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2004 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.
Charlie Cook, helps
independent professionals and small business owners attract more clients and
be more successful. Sign up to receive the Free Marketing Guide and the
'More
Business' newsletter, full of practical tips you can use at
http://www.charliecook.net
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